The geographical blessing has made it possible for Indonesia and Malaysia to support each other over the past decades, even centuries. These neighboring lands share a grand history, often crossing with each other. From the moments where ancient kingdoms and empires were thriving, it ultimately blossomed into two great countries, bearing fruit from what was. In other words, were allies, companions, brothers and sisters, were collaborating with one another.
A great example of our unshakable alliance would trace back in 1970, under the Suharto and Mahathir administrations. Iat is stated that we have a tight-binding relationship. Although we might have political disputes here and there, think of it as siblings, sometimes skirmishes may happen between the two of us, but we’re still standing by each other’s side if the time calls for it. Taking a step back from the larger scale, it can also be seen by how we treat each other.
The way Indonesians and Malaysians interact with one another is simply peaceful. I’m heavily vouching on this statement because I’m one of them, an Indonesian living in Malaysia, and take my word for it, they’re super friendly. My whole life living among Malaysians and I encountered little to no toxicity towards my race or origin. It’s just mind boggling by how easy it is to fit in with the people here.
That’s not all, some Malaysians are also known to have Indonesian relations through their ancestors. Just standing by this fact alone builds up a comforting feeling between us knowing that were related in some way. With that in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised to see what greater feats we could achieve as one from time to time.
How could I sing the praises of our unyielding bond without mentioning one of them? Here is the proof of our collaboration and positive we bring to one another. The collab would have to be something grand in scale, which is the trade and economy state between these two nations In 2017, Indonesia was Malaysia’s seventh-largest source of imports, while Malaysia was Indonesia’s fourth-largest source of imports. The 2017 data from the World Bank indicated that Malaysia had a positive balance of trade with Indonesia of around 600 million US dollars.
Touching on the sour side, although many goodness was delivered from our alliance, it’s not always the case. As I’ve stated, disputes are bound to happen since were humans, we aren’t built for perfection but rather learn from our struck calamities. Such an unfortunate battle happened was titled, the “Borneo confrontation”. These next doorstep countries were fighting over who would get the long land border on the island of Borneo. But everything happens for a reason, and fortunately, the heated argument soon evaporated. Thus the confrontation ended in peace in 1966.
Speaking of borders, it is a fact that we have locations that share frontiers, they’re infamous for being used illegally. These gut wrenching operations include illegal crossing, illegal trading and human trafficking. In addition to these unfortunate events, we also have problems regarding about our traditions. You see, due to unprecedented circumstances, we currently share the same cultural heritage which cemented itself as a rather massive complication for both countries. Apparently there’s more, some domestic Indonesian workers in Malaysia were reported to have received abuse, never getting their promised salaries and mistreatment in general. But with all of this sadly said and done, we still stick together no matter what comes in our way.
In conclusion, we may have been born too early for space travel, or too late to witness great events of the past, but we’re certainly lucky enough to be brought into this generation where Malaysia and Indonesia are known as great allies. To simply put it, the collab dream is real.
Written by Sean Audivi Darian 10B
